Hayden: Open spy programs to reassure US public

WASHINGTON (AP) ? The former director of the CIA and National Security Agency says the government should release more information about its secretive surveillance programs to reassure Americans that their privacy rights are being protected.

Michael Hayden said Sunday he believes the public will be more comfortable with the programs that gather phone and Internet records from around the world if people know more about how they are carried out and why.

Hayden also defended a secret court that approves government requests to gather the records. Critics say the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court has served as a rubber stamp to the requests instead of challenging government attorneys on whether the information is needed or gathered properly.

Hayden is now a security consultant and university professor. His comment came on CBS' "Face The Nation."

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2013-06-30-NSA%20Surveillance-Hayden/id-0845c9c7dce7480bbfa5940e9764aefc

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The quantum secret to alcohol reactions in space

June 30, 2013 ? Chemists have discovered that an 'impossible' reaction at cold temperatures actually occurs with vigour, which could change our understanding of how alcohols are formed and destroyed in space.

To explain the impossible, the researchers propose that a quantum mechanical phenomenon, known as 'quantum tunnelling', is revving up the chemical reaction. They found that the rate at which the reaction occurs is 50 times greater at minus 210 degrees Celsius than at room temperature.

It's the harsh environment that makes space-based chemistry so difficult to understand; the extremely cold conditions should put a stop to chemical reactions, as there isn't sufficient energy to rearrange chemical bonds. It has previously been suggested that dust grains -- found in interstellar clouds, for example -- could lend a hand in bringing chemical reactions about.

The idea is that the dust grains act as a staging post for the reactions to occur, with the ingredients of complex molecules clinging to the solid surface. However, last year, a highly reactive molecule called the 'methoxy radical' was detected in space and its formation couldn't be explained in this way.

Laboratory experiments showed that when an icy mixture containing methanol was blasted with radiation -- like would occur in space, with intense radiation from nearby stars, for example -methoxy radicals weren't released in the emitted gases. The findings suggested that methanol gas was involved in the production of the methoxy radicals found in space, rather than any process on the surface of dust grains. But this brings us back to the problem of how the gases can react under extremely cold conditions.

"The answer lies in quantum mechanics," says Professor Dwayne Heard, Head of the School of Chemistry at the University of Leeds, who led the research.

"Chemical reactions get slower as temperatures decrease, as there is less energy to get over the 'reaction barrier'. But quantum mechanics tells us that it is possible to cheat and dig through this barrier instead of going over it. This is called 'quantum tunnelling'."

To succeed in digging through the reaction barrier, incredibly cold temperatures -- like those that exist in interstellar space and in the atmosphere of some planetary bodies, such as Titan -- are needed. "We suggest that an 'intermediary product' forms in the first stage of the reaction, which can only survive long enough for quantum tunnelling to occur at extremely cold temperatures," says Heard.

The researchers were able to recreate the cold environment of space in the laboratory and observe a reaction of the alcohol methanol and an oxidising chemical called the 'hydroxyl radical' at minus 210 degrees Celsius. They found that not only do these gases react to create methoxy radicals at this incredibly cold temperature, but that the rate of reaction is 50 times faster than at room temperature.

To achieve this, the researchers had to create a new experimental setup. "The problem is that the gases condense as soon as they hit a cold surface," says Robin Shannon from the University of Leeds, who performed the experiments. "So we took inspiration from the boosters used for the Apollo Saturn V rockets to create collimated jets of gas that could react without ever touching a surface."

The researchers are now investigating the reactions of other alcohols at very cold temperatures. "If our results continue to show a similar increase in the reaction rate at very cold temperatures, then scientists have been severely underestimating the rates of formation and destruction of complex molecules, such as alcohols, in space," concludes Heard.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/~3/isF70kH0e8w/130630145004.htm

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Sports great Milton Retif speaks at Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame ceremony after receiving Dave Dixon award: video

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Posted: Saturday, June 29, 2013, 11:49 PM

Milton Retif, a huge figure in local sports, gives a speech about how he raised funds for Tulane. He accepted the Dave Dixon award on Saturday night in the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame ceremony.

Source: http://videos.nola.com/times-picayune/2013/06/sports_great_milton_retif_spea.html

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Google is developing an Android game console, smartwatch ...

Google is developing a game console and smartwatch, both powered by Android, and is preparing to release a second version of the Nexus Q media streamer. These devices are all intended to increase Google?s reach beyond smartphones, and to fend off similar plays that are expected from Apple.

This news comes from the Wall Street Journal, which cites the usual ?sources familiar with the matter.? Generally, leaks reported by the WSJ are true, and the source is often the company itself, hoping to secure some time in the limelight, or to change the direction/focus of the news cycle. In this case, the leak is probably a response to Sony?s recently released SmartWatch 2, Apple?s impending iPhone/iPad release, and the launch of the Android-based Ouya game console.

According to the WSJ, Google hopes to design and market all three devices itself, and release at least one of them this fall. While you would assume that Google?s new Motorola subsidiary, with its experience of making set-top boxes, would be the ideal manufacturer of an Android-based game console, the WSJ?s sources say that Motorola won?t be involved at all. This will be purely the work of the Google X R&D lab (which brought us Google Glass), and Google?s Android department. Google also created a ?Google Games? division way back in 2011, too, which might be involved in the rumored Android-powered console.

Sony SmartWatch 2: Is Google preparing to release something similar?

In terms of actual details, not much is known about the three new devices. The smartwatch will connect to your smartphone via Bluetooth. The new Nexus Q will be cheaper and more functional. When it comes to the video game console, WSJ?s sources seems to know nothing, other than it?s in development. All three devices will run Android ? probably the next version, Android 5.0 Key Lime Pie, which is expected to be released this fall, probably around the same time as Apple?s new iPhone, iPad, and iOS 7. Not a whole lot is known about Key Lime Pie, except that it?s apparently optimized for the low-powered devices that are currently taking non-Western nations by storm.

The Google game console and smartwatch are obviously intended to parry any movements made by Apple into the same markets. Apple is rumored to be developing a smartwatch, and a game console or ?iTV? are obvious extensions of the iOS line of devices. Apple was the first to market with a killer smartphone and tablet, and reaped massive rewards as a result. Google is probably hoping that, by releasing a console and smartwatch first, it get in at the ground floor, rather than playing the industry?s standard game of Apple Catch-up.

Ouya: An Android game console might sound like a good idea, but the jury?s still out

Whether an Android-powered game console is actually a good idea or not, the jury?s still out. Despite selling out, the Ouya has received generally negative reviews, partly due to the poor controller, but also due to the fact that most Android games were designed for small displays and touchscreens, not large TVs and gamepads. An iOS console would suffer from the same issue, too. A company with the heft of Google or Apple might be able to throw enough money and resources at developers to fix this issue, but it won?t be quick or easy.

Now read:?Android now powers 75% of all smartphones sold. Are we heading towards a Google monopoly?

Source: http://www.extremetech.com/gaming/159952-google-is-developing-an-android-game-console-smartwatch-second-gen-nexus-q

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Aspirin Recalled Over Bottle Mix-Up

Jun 28, 2013 6:00am

About 16,440 bottles of aspirin have been recalled because at least one bottle actually contained acetaminophen. (Credit: Food and Drug Administration)

A nationwide baby aspirin recall is underway after a CVS pharmacist discovered a 120-pill bottle of baby aspirin was filled with acetaminophen?pills.

Advance Pharmaceutical Inc. voluntarily recalled 16,440 bottles of pills labeled to contain 81-mg aspirin pills because at least one bottle in the lot contained 500-mg acetaminophen pills, according to Advance Pharmaceutical spokesman Abu Amanatullah. No known injuries have been reported.

Read about the frozen berry recall over hepatitis fears.

?That could put some people into liver failure,? said Dr. Joe Odin, an associate professor at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York who does research in drug-induced liver injury.

He said overdosing on acetaminophen, commonly sold under the brand name Tylenol, is the No. 1 ?method of suicide in the United Kingdom. In the United States, patients usually overdose on acetaminophen?by accident because they don?t realize one of their prescriptions ? such as sleeping pills ? already contains it.

?It?s not an uncommon overdose,? said Dr. Corey Slovis, who heads the department of emergent medicine at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Tennessee. ?We hate Tylenol overdose because they?re the silent overdoses.?

Slovis said ?patients who overdose?on acetaminophen?often don?t feel sick right away, unless they?ve taken a massive dose that induces vomiting within six hours. Instead, many patients who overdose on acetaminophen?don?t see a doctor for more than two days because they feel fine at first. When they finally get to Slovis, they?re often jaundiced and experiencing the early signs of liver failure.

As such, this kind of overdose could result in liver failure, the need for a transplant or death, Slovis said.

If doctors catch the overdose early, they can save patients by pumping their stomachs full of charcoal to deactivate the acetaminophen, Odin said. Intravenous medications can also reverse the damage.

But most patients who take baby aspirin do it because it keeps blood platelets from sticking together, said Dr. Sripal Bangalore, a cardiologist at NYU Langone Medical Center. As such, baby aspirin is crucial for patients who have undergone stent surgery.

?Aspirin and Tylenol are not the same,? he said, emphasizing that Tylenol doesn?t have anti-clotting properties. ?Most times, the patient will have signs and symptoms of a heart attack.

If stent patients are unwittingly taking Tylenol instead of aspirin, they run the risk of stent thrombosis, meaning the stent becomes blocked, and they could die, he said.

?It?s pretty dangerous,? Bangalore said. ?Once a stent closes, there are studies to show that the risk of dying from it is pretty large.?

Other patients take baby aspirin because it?s thought to reduce the risk of heart attack. But Bangalore said he?s less worried about that because the benefits are debatable.

Read about the 7 foods most likely to make you sick.

SHOWS: Good Morning America World News

Source: http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/health/2013/06/28/aspirin-recalled-over-acetaminophen-mix-up/

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The Newcomer's Guide To Efficient Internet Promotion - Maynas Eric

It is no secret that there is a lot of hard work involved in Website marketing. Hard work and persistence can help your Internet promotion plan improve your bottom line. It does no good to work very hard at pointless tasks. The tips listed here will get you going in the right direction.

A client mailing list is vital. Post notification on your website to collect emails. However, if you want to be slightly more aggressive, request it in order for customers to purchase items off your site. Either way, you can use this information later to send out sales information, offer promotional materials or to ask for customer feedback.

You need to create a great site before worrying about getting it ranked. Building a great website should be your very first step in starting a web business. Once your website operates without glitches and looks great, you are ready to move forward with marketing.

TIP! To increase your ad clicks, place an image on your page that, when clicked, leads to a page that describes the item you are advertising or selling. Ensure you use the font that you use in your articles and linking it.

Split your website into sections, and have a map from which people can choose the products they?d like to see. While variety is desirable, ensure that your options are presented in an organized way.

Try putting a blog on your site and updating it regularly. Frequent blogging is a great way of keeping your potential customers informed and up to date about your business. Having a blog also makes your site larger, which gives search engines more material to index and should thus bring you more traffic.

You have everything you need to be successful with internet marketing. Fancy computer programs and overpriced get-rich-quick schemes can?t compare to a person with knowledge and the desire to get the job done. Just work hard and imagine what you can achieve when you are marketing yourself.

TIP! Use social media sites such as Twitter and Facebook as a part of your Internet marketing campaign. You can use these sites to advertise new offers or to share your latest articles.

To build a good website, be as content-focused and as comprehensive as you can. Your main goal should be to teach the viewer about your product in a timely manner. Repetitive descriptions and data, facts and information that the customer will find irrelevant or even boring, should be avoided.

Video marketing is an awesome way to generate interest in your business. Incorporating an informative video onto your website is a great method for gaining the attention of your viewers. Sharing these videos should be easy thanks to social networks and blogs.

To become a successful internet marketer, you need dedication and a high work ethic rather than luck. There is no such story about a business that just got lucky in their success. Coca Cola?s success isn?t pure luck, but rather years of research and work that culminated in a wildly successful soft drink. Not at all. They did a superb job of marketing their product.

TIP! A ?squeeze page? can be an effective way to gather contact info for your mailing list. This will encourage visitors to enter their email addresses.

The majority of cellular providers permit multiple numbers to be routed to a single phone. Therefore, it is wise to get a dedicated number.

To bolster the credibility of your web business, you should try to land interviews with authorities within your niche who are well respected. The interviews can be done on video, audio, or in text form. Your interview will boost readership of your website, improve your reputation as someone in the know and give you more incoming traffic.

You should approach banner advertising differently, and go for a unique approach when designing one for your website. The more appealing and original your banner ad appears, the more people you?ll have clicking on it.

TIP! Check out what your competition is up to. You can check your competition?s site to see what they have.

Consider creating a web page for comments and customer reviews of your products and services. Customer reviews can help establish loyalty and will increase your reputation in the industry.

Add the word ?fast? in you advertisement campaigns and add language that would strengthen your products. Customers value speedy service, which is why you want to ensure that your products are delivered quickly.

TIP! If you website is static and rarely ever changes, perhaps you should consider including a blog on your site. New content gets the attention of the search engines which will increase your ranking in their listings and lead to more traffic for your site.

Offering free gifts or promotions will make your customers feel valued. Sometimes, it is easy to overlook simple things such as this, but offering freebies can keep customers coming back.

Customers will order their products faster if you give them incentives to do so. This could include free shipping, faster shipping or free gift wrapping. One way to do this is to offer free shipping to the first 100 customers who purchase a specified item. Offering incentives can encourage more people to purchase your product and promote customer satisfaction.

Are you searching for some way to do online marketing? Encourage people to give you their email address or to connect with you on social networks by advertising special offers regularly. Offer freebies or contests and ask them if you can send them future emails. A customer will provide their email if they get something in return for it.

TIP! Internet marketing ventures will not succeed through chance, only through deliberate effort and hard work can you hope to enjoy success. No one ever got rich in their own business from luck.

Employ a lot of descriptions on the site. Adjectives work very well in the world of web marketing. Be creative, and come up with your own words and site- or product-specific jargon. Make them want to revisit your site just to read what you have to say.

Write relevant content and submit it to article directories online. Make sure these articles are signed with your full name and contain information about your business. If you get published in an online magazine, include a link to your site. You can entice the editors with commissions or freebies that encourage them to publish your content.

Offer something free with your business name and logo on it. For example, if it?s a wallpaper, submit it to sites that offer free wallpapers. Many websites are available that give out free e-content and are easy to submit too.

TIP! Put customer testimonials on your site. It is easy to claim that your product is effective, but without good, solid proof, your audience may not buy it.

Many people won?t believe ad copy. For years, advertising has been misleading. Because of this, you have to show proof of what you claim on your website. Examples of this include testimonials, before-and-after photographs, and test reports. Just do not say anything that you cannot back up. You must take your customer?s word as truthful and sincere. Don?t take advantage of people. You will get a great reputation and gain customers to do business with for a long time.

Take advantage of these hints and ensure that you are making positive strides toward maximum profits. Armed with the information you learned here, and with a bit of hard work, soon you will see the results of your website marketing efforts.

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Source: http://www.maynaseric.com/the-newcomers-guide-to-efficient-internet-promotion

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Fed's Stein puts focus on September as time to assess QE3

By Jonathan Spicer and Alister Bull

NEW YORK/WHITE SULPHUR SPRINGS, West Virginia (Reuters) - September could be an opportune time for the Federal Reserve to consider scaling back its assets purchase, an influential official of the U.S. central bank said on Friday, as he stressed that the Fed must take a long view of economic progress and not be blinded by the most recent data.

The remarks by Fed Governor Jeremy Stein drew the attention of economists and investors after he ticked off several examples of improvement in the labor market since the Fed launched its bond-buying program last September.

Stein's speech, and a separate one on Friday by Jeffrey Lacker, president of the Richmond Fed, had some parallels to efforts by other Fed officials earlier this week to soothe market anxieties about a pullback in the bond purchases.

Nonetheless, Stein and Lacker took a more aggressive tone on when the central bank's unprecedented policy accommodation might be reduced.

Even so, differences within the Fed over the strength of the economy were in view as a third policymaker, John Williams, president of the San Francisco Fed, shelved his earlier view that the Fed could stop buying bonds by late 2013, saying, "It's too early to cut back on our programs right now."

The Fed's purchase of Treasuries and mortgage bonds at a monthly pace of $85 billion has provided a huge flow of liquidity into financial markets, driving up assets from stocks to bonds.

Yields on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note rose after Stein's remarks, a sharp reversal of stabilization in the market earlier in the day.

Markets had dropped hard in the days after Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke last week said the Fed expected to pare back on its bond purchases, known as quantitative easing, later this year and to halt it altogether by mid-2014, as long as the economy progresses as expected. Unemployment will likely have fallen to about 7 percent by then, he said.

But Stein on Friday, in an unusual move, trained investors' attention on the Fed's September policy meeting, though the policy-setting Federal Open Market Committee next meets in July.

"The best approach is for the committee to be clear that in making a decision in, say, September, it will give primary weight to the large stock of news that has accumulated since the inception of the program and will not be unduly influenced by whatever data releases arrive in the few weeks before the meeting," said Stein, a voting member of the policy committee.

Data from early September "will remain relevant for future decisions," even if it does not play a primary role in any policy decision in September, he said, in a speech at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York.

"If the news is bad, and it is confirmed by further bad news in October and November, this would suggest that the 7 percent unemployment goal is likely to be further away, and the remainder of the program would be extended accordingly," he said.

Stein's comments drew a sharp reaction on expectations of the Fed's policy path.

"Stein's remarks cannot be lightly dismissed and raise risks that some on the committee may have already essentially decided on September," said Michael Feroli, chief U.S. economist at JP Morgan in New York.

Lacker also put September in focus, saying the Fed meeting that month "is certainly a candidate" for when the Fed could first reduce its pace of buying, though he said that economic data would be key.

Nearly half of the economists polled by Reuters this month expect the Fed to start reducing the pace of asset purchases in September.

Video of Stein's speech: http://reut.rs/14zOITm

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EXPECT MORE VOLATILITY

Williams, who is a voter on Fed policy this year, gave no preferred timeline for reducing bond purchases, saying only that doing so would be appropriate "at some point." If inflation continues to come in below expectations, that could point to the need for more stimulus, not less, he said.

He called the recent rise in Treasury rates a "healthy" development because it suggests markets no longer assume the Fed will keep rates low forever.

Lacker, one of the central bank's most hawkish officials and a persistent critic of the latest round of bond buying, said it was "wise" for Bernanke to clarify the Fed's views on future bond buying, but he stressed policy would still be loose as the Fed reduces "the pace at which it is adding accommodation." Lacker is not a voter on policy this year.

Financial markets should brace for more volatility as they digest news of a reduction in quantitative easing, Lacker told a judicial conference in West Virginia, adding that it "should not interfere with the moderate-growth scenario that I have presented."

Williams said that the sudden rise in rates suggests some investors had become complacent about low rates and that froth had been building in some areas of financial markets.

"It's healthy to get some froth out of the market," he told reporters after his speech.

On the labor market, where unemployment remains high at 7.6 percent, Stein noted the rate was 8.1 percent when the bond purchase program was launched last year. Monthly job growth has jumped dramatically since then, he said, adding Fed forecasts are also more optimistic.

Stein said the Fed can be more specific about its plans for QE3 as it approaches its policy goals. The timeline Bernanke articulated illustrates a "greater willingness to spell out what the committee is looking for, as opposed to a 'we'll know it when we see it' approach," he said.

Still, Stein stressed that reducing the pace of QE3 is highly conditional on the economy. He added it did not mark a change in policy and was meant only to clarify things for investors.

Stein, a relatively new but highly respected member of the powerful Fed board, turned some heads back in February when he warned the massive asset purchases were showing signs of inflating price bubbles in junk bonds and other markets.

But on Friday he said while financial stability should play a roll in monetary policy decisions, the benefits of QE3 have surpassed the costs of the program, including such stability risks.

(Additional reporting by Ann Saphir in Rohnert Park, Calif., and Richard Leong in New York; Editing by Leslie Adler)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/feds-stein-puts-focus-september-time-assess-qe3-161413098.html

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Could Russia take in 'idealist' Snowden?

Former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden, who Russian officials say is spending his sixth day hiding somewhere in Moscow's cavernous Sheremetyevo airport, has still not been heard from or even spotted by journalists who've been eagerly combing the transit zone for a glimpse of him.

But his presence has not passed unnoticed in Moscow political circles, where a growing number of voices are suggesting that he should be brought in from the cold and offered asylum in Russia.

While a skeptic may perceive a cynical streak behind the unfolding public discussion ? a desire to exploit Mr. Snowden's situation for propaganda points against the US ? it might also be argued that some of the Western concepts being introduced into mainstream Russia political discourse, pretty much for the first time, may be hard to put back in the box later.

RECOMMENDED: Do you know anything about Russia? A quiz.

One prominent theme is the jarring notion that the old cold war paradigm ? the US-led "free world" versus the Soviet "evil empire" ? is being been stood on its head, and the US now looks like a ponderous, bureaucratic police state, while modern Russia has morphed into a beacon of hope for Western freedom-seekers.

"[Julian] Assange, [Bradley] Manning and Snowden are not spies who sold classified information for money. They acted on their beliefs. They are new dissidents, fighters against the system," the head of the State Duma's international affairs committee, Alexei Pushkov, tweeted Wednesday.

Mr. Pushkov, who excels at skewering Western "double standards," has maintained a steady stream of similar comments on his Twitter feed in recent days.

"The idealist Snowden was apparently convinced it would all turn out like a Hollywood movie: he will expose abuses and democracy will prevail. But life, and the US, are tougher," he tweeted Friday.

A somewhat different tack was taken by the head of the Kremlin's in-house human rights commission, Mikhail Fedotov, who told journalists that Snowden "deserves protection" and should file a request for refuge in Russia.

"If Mr. Snowden files such a request, then it can be considered by the president," Fedotov told the independent Interfax agency on Thursday.

"This situation is utterly clear to me from the point of view of human rights protection: a person, disclosing secrets concealed by special services, if these secrets are a threat to the society, a threat to millions people ? which refers to the total surveillance of the Internet ? such a person does deserve political asylum in this or that country," Fedotov said.

The official line, expressed by President Vladimir Putin, is that Russia will not hand Snowden over to the US but that he should move on, the sooner the better.

Before he goes, however, Russia's Federation Council, the upper house of parliament, has struck a special committee and invited him in to testify about the impact of NSA spying on Russian citizens.

Sen. Ruslan Gattarov, head of the Federation Council's working group to investigate Snowden's claims, says his main concern is not to investigate the NSA.

He insists the committee's key interest is to explore the alleged abuse-of-trust by giant Internet companies ? such as Google, Yahoo, and Facebook, and others with huge slices of the Russian market ? which Snowden's revelations suggest have handed over user data to the NSA.

"We don't want to get involved in secret service conspiracies. Whatever the NSA was doing is not particularly our concern," Mr. Gattarov says.

"We want to know how it happens that big global Internet companies, which operate in Russia, too, find it possible to leak user data to a third party. The public has been assured by these companies that our personal correspondence, our bank accounts, our Internet habits are all perfectly secure. But what we're learning from Mr. Snowden's exposures strongly suggest otherwise."

"So, we want to talk with him. As soon as he settles his status, we invite him to come to the Federation Council and discuss with us any evidence that is relevant to this probe," he adds.

Sergei Markov, a frequent adviser to President Putin, says the growing public debate over what to do about Snowden really is something new, and it puts the Kremlin in a difficult spot.

"Russia really would prefer if Snowden went somewhere else, but it is quite possible that we'd take him in if he asked for asylum here. It would create difficulties with the US, but Russia would lose a lot of credibility if it were to turn him down," Mr. Markov says.

"Of course, Snowden probably doesn't want refuge in Russia. He belongs to international civil society, the so-called 'warriors of freedom,' who probably dislike Russia as much as they do the US. He'd probably see Russian asylum as the total failure of his mission. But in Russian society, there is a real, very healthy discussion going on about this. People are reexamining their beliefs. For example, human rights advocates who normally just criticize the Kremlin are being forced to answer the question: Are you more pro-American, or more pro-human rights?" he says.

"If you're more pro-human rights, it means you should support Snowden even if it means offending the US."

RECOMMENDED: Do you know anything about Russia? A quiz.

Related stories

Read this story at csmonitor.com

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Source: http://news.yahoo.com/russia-debates-letting-snowden-cold-160350294.html

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BBM still coming to Android before the end of the summer

BlackBerry CEO Thorsten Heins this morning on the company's quarterly earnings call reminded us that BBM — that's BlackBerry Messenger — will be available for Android and iOS "before the end of the summer."

He didn't give any further details, and it's worth noting that summer officially is all of a week old.

More: CrackBerry earnings call liveblog

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/androidcentral/~3/IUmEHHo58LI/story01.htm

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KeyMe: Store Your Keys In the Cloud, Never Get Locked Out Again

Whether you've got to deal with a crotchety landlord or a dopey locksmith, we can all agree that replacing lost or stolen keys can be a drag. KeyMe, a new service launched this week in New York, seems to have found a solution by storing your keys in the cloud and making them accessible via a kiosk 24/7.

Read more...

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/S66C4oFgjXE/keyme-store-your-keys-in-the-cloud-never-get-locked-o-586549581

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Paying by Phone ? Conveniences and Cautions

It seems like every time I get to the register of a chain store, they offer me a new way to pay with my phone. But these new modes of paying have serious pros and cons ? and there may be compelling reasons not to dive into mobile payments just yet, despite their growth.

Mobile Payments Predicted To Go Up 44% in 2013
Research firm Gartner says over $235 million in payments will be made with mobile devices this year. In retail outlets, those pay-by-phone options break down into three main categories: brand specific apps (like the Starbucks app), payment apps (like PayPal or Square Wallet), and NFC ? Near Field Communications (special phones linked to a Google Wallet or Isis account).

NFC ? Near Field Communication
Let?s start with NFC since it?s gotten all the hot press. This technology is built into certain devices, predominantly Android and Blackberry phones. You link the phone either to a Google Wallet account (tied to your bank or credit card), to an NFC credit card account (like Mastercard PayPass), or to an Isis account (tied to your mobile phone billing), then tap a terminal at the checkout to pay. But these tap-and-go contact-less payments will account for only 2% of all mobile payments in 2013 according to Gartner. Stores with NFC terminals are limited, and only a handful of phones have NFC technology built in (and the iPhone is NOT one of those).

Probably the biggest issue is that NFC is a solution in search of a problem: how difficult is it to swipe a credit card? More explicitly, what does NFC payment do for the consumer?s convenience that swiping a credit card can?t? If NFC terminals were everywhere, maybe it would facilitate leaving home without cash or a credit card, but until then, the technology faces significant inertia, and I wouldn?t buy one phone over another just because it has NFC baked in.

Brand-Specific Apps
Many chains have their own apps that let you input your credit card info and ?load? money on the app for in-store payments. By combining the payment functionality with apps that track purchases and reward loyalty, ?regulars? get a significant convenience and can even frequent their favorite joint without a wallet. Do you go for a run every morning and grab a coffee when you finish? Hello Starbucks app on your phone! uyl_WaysToPay_still_embed

Pre-order/Pre-pay
I particularly like the order ahead and pay by mobile functionality that chains like California Pizza Kitchen App have brought to market. This makes the take-out pizza experience incredibly easy. Order and pay by app, walk in, tell them your name, get your food and walk out in under three minutes. The app even remembers your previous orders so you can replicate them with one click ? genius. Jamba Juice is said to be testing pre-order and pre-pay for their app, and when this is a feature is replicated by more chains, it will bring many loyal customers into the mobile payment world.

Wallet Apps
Paypal and Square wallet are the two biggest players in app-based mobile payments. Stores that offer payment by app either let you key in your mobile phone number and a pin or use location data captured by your phone, in which case the phone will generate a QR code to be scanned at the register. Again, stores need special equipment and merchant accounts. Plus, the major benefits of using Paypal or Square are still limited to people who don?t have a bank account or credit cards and prefer a mobile option.

Money Transfers
While in-store mobile purchases are growing, 71% of all mobile payments are money transfers ? and most often, person-to-person transfers. The clear winner here is Paypal, which lets you email or even text money to anyone?s phone or email address. The recipient needs to have a Paypal account (or sign up for one) but so long as it?s not a business payment, just between individuals, there are no fees.

These types of transfers are ideal for repaying a friend, or sending money to a family member who needs the cash immediately. Some services don?t even need a bank account to work ? good news for the 8% of US households that don?t have bank accounts. Customers can use cash to purchase a PayPal card or Money Pak card in retail outlets, and then use the pin numbers on those cards to deposit money into the Paypal mobile account (but beware: prepaid card purchases can have fees associated).

Text Money From your Online Banking App
Banks like Wells Fargo and Chase now allow you to send money to individuals directly from their phone app. There?s also a brand new mobile phone-based bank called GoBank that, among many other innovative features, lets you send money directly to a friend from your GoBank account.

Send Money via Gmail
Google is also entering the mobile transfer space; they are trying out a product that lets you send money through Gmail, almost like an attachment. Google said in a statement this is only available to users over 18. It?s slowly being rolled out to users in the U.S., and we assume later, internationally.

Person-to-Person Credit Card Payments
PayPal and Square both offer credit card readers that plug into a smart phone and allow anyone to swipe a credit card and accept payment. If you have an account, the readers are free. They make great sense for small business owners, fundraising events, or even collecting money around the office for a baby gift. But the big gotcha here is the roughly 3% that the services charge you to accept money via credit card.

Security
The weakest link in the mobile payment security chain is not the wireless transmission of your data via NFC or the scanning of QR codes from a store?s app. The technology is not the problem; it?s what that technology enables: more corporations may have your credit card and billing info on their servers (hello hacking target). And an even bigger vulnerability: if your phone is stolen, thieves have access to a treasure trove of accounts and payment methods. If you plan to pay with your phone, you?d better have security software enabled, like Lookout for Android or Find My iPhone ? both of which allow you to erase your phone remotely as soon as it?s stolen.

[Related: How To Lock Down Your Cell Phone If It?s Stolen]

Bottom Line: Mobile payments make sense if you don?t have a bank account or credit card, if you frequent a chain that offers mobile payments and reward features, or if you want to transfer money to friends and family in a secure and convenient way. But be sure you know the fees associated with these payments and can remotely erase your phone if it?s stolen.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/upgrade-your-life/paying-phone-conveniences-cautions-141559523.html

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Behold the First Images of the Official Lego Back to the Future Set!

Brick News has obtained photos of the official Lego Back to the Future set, including the minifigs for Marty McFly and Doc Brown. As you can see, it's more elaborated than the version approved by Lego Cuusoo. You'll be able to create all the three versions of the car using the pieces in this set.

Read more...

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/zSyXP9Q3U_c/behold-the-first-images-of-the-official-lego-back-to-th-578288625

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Putin: 'Nyet' to US request to turn over Snowden

MOSCOW (AP) ? Yes, he's at a Moscow airport, and no, you can't have him.

Russian President Vladimir Putin gave the first official acknowledgment of the whereabouts of National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden on Tuesday and promptly rejected U.S. pleas to turn him over.

Snowden, who is charged with violating American espionage laws, fled Hong Kong over the weekend, touching off a global guessing game over where he went and frustrating U.S. efforts to bring him to justice.

Putin said Snowden is in the transit zone of Sheremetyevo Airport and has not passed through Russian immigration, meaning he technically is not in Russia and thus is free to travel wherever he wants.

After arriving Sunday on a flight from Hong Kong, Snowden registered for a Havana-bound flight Monday en route to Venezuela and then possible asylum in Ecuador, but he didn't board the plane.

Speculation has been rife that Russian security services have been talking to Snowden and might want to keep him in Russia for a more thorough debriefing, but Putin denied that.

"Our special services never worked with Mr. Snowden and aren't working with him today," Putin said at a news conference during a visit to Finland.

Because Moscow has no extradition agreement with Washington, it cannot meet the U.S. request, he said.

"Mr. Snowden is a free man, and the sooner he chooses his final destination the better it is for us and for him," Putin said. "I hope it will not affect the businesslike character of our relations with the U.S. and I hope that our partners will understand that."

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said Tuesday that the U.S. wants Russia to show respect for the rule of law and comply with common practices when it comes to fugitives from justice.

Putin's staunch refusal to consider deportation shows his readiness to further challenge Washington at a time when U.S.-Russian relations are already strained over Syria and other issues, including a Russian ban on adoptions by Americans.

"Just showing America that we don't care about our relations, we are down to basically a Cold War pattern: The enemy of your government is our friend," said Masha Lipman of the Carnegie Moscow Center.

"The Russian administration has not come that far, but we don't know what it's up to," she said.

Despite Putin's denial, security experts believe Russia's special services wouldn't miss the chance to question a man who is believed to hold reams of classified U.S. documents and could shed light on how the U.S. intelligence agencies collect information.

Igor Korotchenko, director of the Center for Global Arms Trade and editor of National Defense Magazine, said Snowden would be of particular interest because little is known about digital espionage.

"The security services would be happy to enter into contact with Mr. Snowden," Korotchenko said.

Russia also has relished using Snowden's revelations to turn the tables on the U.S. over its criticism of Russia's rights record.

Putin compared Snowden to WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, who has been given asylum in the Ecuadorean Embassy in London, saying that both men were labeled criminals but consider themselves rights activists and champions of freedom of information.

"Ask yourself a question: Should people like that be extradited so that they put them in prison?" he said. "In any case, I would prefer not to deal with such issues. It's like shearing a piglet: a lot of squealing and little wool."

In an apparent reference to claims that Russia could have played a role in Snowden's exit from Hong Kong, Putin said his arrival in Moscow was a "complete surprise" and dismissed such accusations as "ravings and sheer nonsense."

"He doesn't need a visa or any other documents, and as a transit passenger he has the right to buy a ticket and fly wherever he wants," Putin said.

Snowden, 30, is a former CIA employee who later was hired as a contractor for the NSA. In that job, he gained access to documents that he gave to newspapers the Guardian and The Washington Post to expose what he contends are privacy violations by an authoritarian government.

Snowden also told the South China Morning Post newspaper in Hong Kong that "the NSA does all kinds of things like hack Chinese cellphone companies to steal all of your SMS data." He is believed to have more than 200 additional sensitive documents in laptops he is carrying.

Russian news media had reported that Snowden remained in a transit zone at the airport, which is separate from regular departure areas. He has not been seen by any of the journalists who have been roaming Sheremetyevo in search of him, furthering speculation that he had been secreted away.

The Interfax news agency, citing an unidentified airport official, said Snowden could be staying in a room in the transit zone normally reserved for flight crews and other personnel.

Legally, an arriving air passenger only crosses the border after clearing Russian immigration checks.

Earlier Tuesday, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov rejected the U.S. push to turn over Snowden, but he wouldn't specify his whereabouts, saying only that he hadn't crossed the Russian border.

Kerry called for "calm and reasonableness."

"We would hope that Russia would not side with someone who is a fugitive from justice," Kerry said at a news conference in Saudi Arabia.

The U.S. has revoked Snowden's passport.

A representative of WikiLeaks has been traveling with Snowden, and the secret-spilling organization is believed to be assisting him in arranging asylum. Assange, the group's founder, said Monday that Snowden was only passing through Russia and had applied for asylum in Ecuador, Iceland and possibly other countries.

A high-ranking Ecuadorean official told The Associated Press that Russia and Ecuador were discussing where Snowden could go, saying the process could take days. He also said Ecuador's ambassador to Moscow had not seen or spoken to Snowden. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the case publicly.

The Kremlin has previously said Russia would be ready to consider Snowden's request for asylum.

Some observers said Snowden's revelations have provided the Kremlin with propaganda arguments to counter the U.S. criticism of Russia's crackdown on opposition and civil activists under Putin.

"They would use Snowden to demonstrate that the U.S. government doesn't sympathize with the ideals of freedom of information, conceals key information from the public and stands ready to open criminal proceedings against those who oppose it," Konstantin Remchukov, the editor of independent daily Nezavisimaya Gazeta, said on Ekho Moskvy radio.

Putin has accused the U.S. State Department of instigating protests in Moscow against his re-election for a third term in March and has taken an anti-American posture that plays well with his core support base of industrial workers and state employees.

____

Huuhtanen reported from Naantali, Finland. Associated Press writers Lynn Berry in Moscow and Michael Weissenstein and Gonzalo Solano in Quito, Ecuador, contributed to this story.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/putin-nyet-us-request-turn-over-snowden-205252039.html

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Targeted viral therapy destroys breast cancer stem cells in preclinical experiments

June 24, 2013 ? A promising new treatment for breast cancer being developed at Virginia Commonwealth University Massey Cancer Center and the VCU Institute of Molecular Medicine (VIMM) has been shown in cell culture and in animal models to selectively kill cancer stem cells at the original tumor site and in distant metastases with no toxic effects on healthy cells, including normal stem cells. Cancer stem cells are critical to a cancer's ability to recur following conventional chemotherapies and radiation therapy because they can quickly multiply and establish new tumors that are often therapy resistant.

The study, published in the International Journal of Cancer, focuses on a gene originally cloned in the laboratory of primary investigator Paul B. Fisher, M.Ph., Ph.D. The gene, melanoma differentiation associated gene-7 (mda-7), also known as interleukin (IL)-24, has been shown to directly impact two forms of cell suicide known as apoptosis and toxic autophagy, regulate the development of new blood vessels and also play a role in promoting cancer cell destruction by the immune system. In the present study, the researchers used a recombinant adenovirus vector, an engineered virus with modified genetic material, known as Ad.mda-7 to deliver the mda-7/IL-24 gene with its encoded protein directly to the tumor.

"Therapy with the mda-7/IL-24 gene has been shown to be safe in a phase I clinical trial involving patients with advanced cancers, and prior studies in my laboratory and with collaborators have shown that the gene could also be effective against breast, prostate, lung, colorectal, ovarian, pancreatic and brain cancers," says Fisher, Thelma Newmeyer Corman Endowed Chair in Cancer Research and co-leader of the Cancer Molecular Genetics program at VCU Massey, chairman of VCU School of Medicine's Department of Human and Molecular Genetics and director of the VCU Institute of Molecular Medicine. "Our study demonstrates that this therapy may someday be an effective way to eradicate both early and advanced stage breast cancer, and could even be used to reduce the risk of cancer recurrence."

The researchers found that infection of human breast cancer cells with the adenovirus decreased the proliferation of breast cancer stem cells without affecting normal breast stem cells. It was also shown to induce a stress response in the cells that led to apoptosis by disrupting Wnt/B-catenin signaling, a process cells rely upon to transmit signals that initiate biological functions critical to survival. In mouse models, the therapy profoundly inhibited the growth of tumors generated from breast cancer stem cells and also killed cancer cells in distant, uninjected tumors.

Since discovering the mda-7/IL-24 gene, Fisher and his team have worked to develop better ways to deliver it to cancer cells, including two cancer "terminator" viruses known as Ad.5-CTV and Ad.5/3-CTV. Cancer terminator viruses are unique because they are designed to replicate only within cancer cells while delivering immune-modulating and toxic genes such as MDA-7/IL-24. Coupled with a novel stealth delivery technique known as ultrasound-targeted microbubble destruction (UTMD), researchers can now systemically deliver viruses and therapeutic genes and proteins directly to tumors and their surrounding tissue (microenvironment) at both primary and metastatic tumor sites. UTMD uses microscopic, gas-filled bubbles that can be paired with viral therapies, therapeutic genes and proteins, and imaging agents and can then be released in a site and target-specific manner via ultrasound. Fisher and his colleagues are pioneering this approach and have already reported success in experiments utilizing UTMD technology and mda-7/IL-24 gene therapy in prostate and colorectal cancer models.

"We are hopeful that this targeted gene therapy could be safely combined with conventional chemotherapies to significantly improve outcomes for patients with breast cancer and potentially a variety of other cancers," says Fisher. "When paired with promising new delivery techniques such as UTMD, physicians may one day be able to better target site-specific cancers and also monitor the effectiveness of these types of therapies in real time."

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/~3/OUtmjiftctE/130624111008.htm

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China slump, higher bond yields weigh on markets

Trader David O''Day, left, works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, Friday, June 21, 2013. Global stock markets reeled Monday, June 24, 2013 with Shanghai's index enduring its biggest loss in four years, after China allowed commercial lending rates to soar in a move analysts said was aimed at curbing a booming underground lending industry. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)

Trader David O''Day, left, works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, Friday, June 21, 2013. Global stock markets reeled Monday, June 24, 2013 with Shanghai's index enduring its biggest loss in four years, after China allowed commercial lending rates to soar in a move analysts said was aimed at curbing a booming underground lending industry. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)

The stock market recovered much of a nearly swoon caused by the latest signs of distress in China's economy and rising U.S. bond yields.

The Dow Jones industrial average fell 139 points, or 0.9 percent, to close at 14,659 Monday. It was down as much as 248 in the first hour of trading.

The Standard & Poor's index fell 19 points, or 1.2 percent, to 1,573. The Nasdaq composite fell 36 points, or 1.1 percent, to 3,320.

An increase in China's commercial lending rates worried investors. The Shanghai Composite Index plunged 5 percent.

The yield on the 10-year Treasury note rose to its highest level in almost two years.

Seven stocks fell for every one that rose on the New York Stock Exchange. Volume was heavy at 4.7 billion shares.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2013-06-24-Wall%20Street-Close/id-b9baa7e4df764a4ca9fd4758ef07b346

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Genes involved in birth defects may also lead to mental illness

June 24, 2013 ? Gene mutations that lead to major birth defects may also cause subtle disruptions in the brain that contribute to psychiatric disorders such as schizophrenia, autism, and bipolar disorder, according to new research by UC San Francisco scientists.

Over the past several years, researchers in the laboratory of psychiatrist Benjamin Cheyette, MD, PhD, have shown that mutations in a gene called Dact1 cause cell signaling networks to go awry during embryonic development. Researchers observed that mice with Dact1 mutations were born with a range of severe malformations, including some reminiscent of spina bifida in humans.

This new study was designed to explore whether Dact1 mutations exert more nuanced effects in the brain that may lead to mental illness. In doing so, Cheyette, John Rubenstein, MD, PhD, and colleagues in UCSF's Nina Ireland Laboratory of Developmental Neurobiology used a genetic technique in adult mice to selectively delete the Dact1 protein only in interneurons, a group of brain cells that regulates activity in the cerebral cortex, including cognitive and sensory processes. Poor function of interneurons has been implicated in a range of psychiatric conditions.

As reported in the June 24 online issue of PLOS ONE, researchers found that the genetically altered interneurons appeared relatively normal and had managed to find their proper position in the brain's circuitry during development. But the cells had significantly fewer synapses, the sites where communication with neighboring neurons takes place. In additional observations not included in the new paper, the team also noted that the cells' dendrites -- fine extensions that normally form bushy arbors studded with synapses -- were poorly developed and sparsely branched.

"When you delete this gene function after initial, early development -- just eliminating it in neurons after they've formed -- they migrate to the right place and their numbers are correct, but their morphology is a little off," Cheyette said. "And that's very much in line with the kinds of pathology that people have been able to identify in psychiatric illness.

"Neurological illnesses tend to be focal, with lesions that you can identify or pathology you can see on an imaging study," Cheyette explained. "Psychiatric illnesses? Not so much. The differences are really subtle and hard to see."

Key Gene's Role in Development of Human Nervous System

The Dact1 protein is part of a fundamental biological system known as the Wnt (pronounced "wint") signaling pathway. Interactions among proteins in the Wnt pathway orchestrate many processes essential to life in animals as diverse as fruit flies, mice and humans, including the proper development of the immensely complex human nervous system from a single fertilized egg cell.

One way the Wnt pathway manages this task is by maintaining the "polarity" of cells during development, said Cheyette, "a process of sequestering, increasing the concentration of one set of proteins on one side of the cell and a different set of proteins on the other side of the cell." Polarity is particularly important as precursor cells transform into nerve cells, Cheyette said, because neurons are "the most polarized cells in the body," with specialized input and output zones that must wind up in the proper spots if the cells are to function normally.

Cheyette said his group is now conducting behavioral experiments with the mice analyzed in the new PLOS ONE paper and with genetically related mouse lines to test whether these mice have behavioral abnormalities in sociability, sensory perception, anxiety or motivation that resemble symptoms in major psychiatric disorders.

He also hopes to collaborate with UCSF colleagues on follow-up experiments to determine whether the activity of neurons lacking Dact1 is impaired in addition to the structural flaws identified in the new study and prior published work from his lab.

Meanwhile, as-yet-unpublished findings from human genetics research conducted by Cheyette's group suggest that individuals with autism are significantly more likely than healthy comparison subjects to carry mutations in a Wnt pathway gene called WNT1.

"Just because a gene plays an important role in the embryo doesn't mean it isn't also important in the brain later, and might be involved in psychiatric pathology," said Cheyette. "When these genes are mutated, someone may look fine, develop fine and have no obvious medical problems at birth, but they may also develop autism in childhood or have a psychotic break in adulthood and develop schizophrenia."

Rubenstein is the Nina Ireland Distinguished Professor in Child Psychiatry.

Additional study authors include postdoctoral scholars Xiaoyong Yang, PhD, Daniel Vogt, PhD, and Amelia Stanco, PhD, and graduate student and first author Annie Arguello. Yang and Stanco are supported by a postdoctoral training grant (T32) led by Judy Ford, PhD, to the UCSF Department of Psychiatry from the National Institute of Mental Health.

Arguello conducted this research while obtaining her PhD in the UCSF doctoral program in Biomedical Sciences (BMS), and was supported by the Initiative to Maximize Student Development Program of the National Institute of General Medicine, as well as by BMS, the UCSF Department of Psychiatry, and the Center for Neurobiology and Psychiatry led by Sam Barondes, MD, Jeanne and Sanford Robertson Endowed Chair in Neurobiology and Psychiatry.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/health_medicine/genes/~3/hr3TfYz7yj0/130624172756.htm

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AP Source: NSA leaker Snowden's passport revoked

WASHINGTON (AP) ? The former National Security Agency contractor who disclosed a highly classified surveillance program has had his U.S. passport revoked, an official said Sunday.

Edward Snowden's passport was annulled before he left Hong Kong for Russia and while that could complicate his travel plans, the lack of a passport alone could not thwart his plans, the U.S. official said. If a senior official in another country or with an airline orders it, a country could overlook the withdrawn passport, the official said.

The U.S. official would only discuss the passport on the condition of anonymity because the official was not authorized to discuss the matter.

Snowden's allies said he was heading toward Ecuador, where the foreign minister said the government had received a request for asylum.

State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki refused to comment on Snowden's passport specifically but said individuals facing arrest warrants could have their passport withdrawn.

"Such a revocation does not affect citizenship status. Persons wanted on felony charges, such as Mr. Snowden, should not be allowed to proceed in any further international travel other than is necessary to return him to the United States," Psaki said in a statement.

Snowden, a CIA technician and former NSA contractor, helped The Guardian and The Washington Post to disclose surveillance programs that collects vast amounts of online data and email, sometimes sweeping up information on ordinary American citizens. Officials have the ability to collect phone and Internet information broadly but need a warrant to examine specific cases where they believe terrorism is involved.

Since news organizations began publishing reports based on Snowden's disclosures, he had been in hiding in Hong Kong, a former British colony with a high degree of autonomy from mainland China. The United States formally sought Snowden's extradition from Hong Kong but was rebuffed; Hong Kong officials said the U.S. request did not fully comply with their laws.

Snowden was said to have landed in Moscow on Sunday but was not seen leaving the airport.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/89ae8247abe8493fae24405546e9a1aa/Article_2013-06-23-US-NSA-Surveillance-Snowden-Passport/id-17eadedb1de046e8a9f21bff7891b99b

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iOS 7 beta 2 released, brings its magic to iPad

We got to see quite a bit of iOS 7 back at WWDC 2013, but we only saw it working on an iPhone. Well, we've got some good news for big screen Apple devs, as a new iOS 7 beta's been released OTA and it now works on the iPad. Of course, the new beta also brings the usual nebulous "bug fixes and improvements" for all devices, and among those improvements is the addition of the Voice Memos app and Siri's new voices in English as well. It's available now, so if you're in the beta, you best get to downloading!

Filed under: Software, Apple

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Source: TUAW

Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/B5acrDiEbe0/

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Snowden believed to be in Moscow

MOSCOW (AP) ? A former National Security Agency contractor wanted by the United States for revealing highly classified surveillance programs was believed to have landed in Russia on Sunday ? possibly as a stopover before traveling elsewhere ? after being allowed to leave Hong Kong.

Edward Snowden was on an Aeroflot flight from Hong Kong that arrived in Moscow shortly after 5 p.m. (1300gmt) Sunday and was booked on a flight to fly to Cuba on Monday, the Russian news agencies ITAR-Tass and Interfax reported, citing unnamed airline officials. The reports said he intended to travel from Cuba to Caracas, Venezuela. There was also speculation that he might try to reach Ecuador.

The WikiLeaks anti-secrecy group said it was working with him and that he was bound for an unnamed "democratic nation via a safe route for the purpose of asylum."

Snowden did not leave Moscow's Sheremetyevo Airport with the other passengers and was not seen by a crowd of journalists waiting in the arrivals lounge. Interfax reported that he was spending the night in the transit zone of the airport because he did not have a visa to enter Russia and had rented a room in a capsule hotel.

The car of Ecuador's ambassador to Russia was parked outside the airport, spurring the speculation that Snowden intended to seek asylum in the Latin American country. But in Ecuador, a high-ranking source at the presidency said there was no information about whether Snowden would seek asylum there. The source spoke on condition of anonymity for lack of authorization to speak on the issue.

Foreign Minister Ricardo Patino said last week that if Snowden asked for asylum, Ecuador would study the request.

Snowden had been in hiding in Hong Kong for several weeks after he revealed information on the highly classified spy programs. WikiLeaks said it was providing legal help to Snowden at his request and that he was being escorted by diplomats and legal advisers from the group.

WikiLeaks' founder, Julian Assange, who has spent a year inside the Ecuadorean Embassy in London to avoid extradition to Sweden to face questioning about sex crime allegations, told the Sydney Morning Herald that his organization is in a position to help because it has expertise in international asylum and extradition law.

The White House said President Barack Obama has been briefed on Sunday's developments by his national security advisers.

Snowden's departure came a day after the United States made a formal request for his extradition and gave a pointed warning to Hong Kong against delaying the process of returning him to face trial in the U.S.

The Department of Justice said only that it would "continue to discuss this matter with Hong Kong and pursue relevant law enforcement cooperation with other countries where Mr. Snowden may be attempting to travel."

The Hong Kong government said in a statement that Snowden left "on his own accord for a third country through a lawful and normal channel."

It acknowledged the U.S. extradition request, but said U.S. documentation did not "fully comply with the legal requirements under Hong Kong law." It said additional information was requested from Washington, but since the Hong Kong government "has yet to have sufficient information to process the request for provisional warrant of arrest, there is no legal basis to restrict Mr. Snowden from leaving Hong Kong."

The statement said Hong Kong had informed the U.S. of Snowden's departure. It added that it wanted more information about alleged hacking of computer systems in Hong Kong by U.S. government agencies which Snowden had revealed.

Hong Kong's decision to let Snowden go on a technicality appears to be a pragmatic move aimed at avoiding a drawn out extradition battle. The action swiftly eliminates a geopolitical headache that could have left Hong Kong facing pressure from both Washington and Beijing.

Hong Kong, a former British colony, has a high degree of autonomy and is granted rights and freedoms not seen on mainland China, but under the city's mini constitution Beijing is allowed to intervene in matters involving defense and diplomatic affairs.

Hong Kong has an extradition treaty with the U.S., but the document has some exceptions, including for crimes deemed political.

Russian officials have given no indication that they have any interest in detaining Snowden or any grounds to do so. Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has said that Russia would be willing to consider granting asylum if Snowden were to make such a request.

Russia and the United States have no extradition treaty that would oblige Russia to hand over a U.S. citizen at Washington's request.

The Cuban government had no comment on Snowden's movements or reports he might use Havana as a transit point.

The Obama administration on Saturday warned Hong Kong against delaying Snowden's extradition, with White House national security adviser Tom Donilon saying in an interview with CBS News, "Hong Kong has been a historically good partner of the United States in law enforcement matters, and we expect them to comply with the treaty in this case."

Michael Ratner, Assange's lawyer, said he didn't know Snowden's final destination, but that his options were not numerous. "You have to have a country that's going to stand up to the United States," Ratner said. "You're not talking about a huge range of countries here."

Ratner added that a country's extradition treaty with the U.S. is "not going to be relevant" because the country he ends up going to will likely be one willing to give him a political exemption.

Snowden's departure came as the South China Morning Post released new allegations from the former NSA contractor that U.S. hacking targets in China included the nation's cellphone companies and two universities hosting extensive Internet traffic hubs.

He told the newspaper that "the NSA does all kinds of things like hack Chinese cellphone companies to steal all of your SMS data." It added that Snowden said he had documents to support the hacking allegations, but the report did not identify the documents. It said he spoke to the newspaper in a June 12 interview.

With a population of more than 1.3 billion, China has massive cellphone companies. China Mobile is the world's largest mobile network carrier with 735 million subscribers, followed by China Unicom with 258 million users and China Telecom with 172 million users.

Snowden said Tsinghua University in Beijing and Chinese University in Hong Kong, home of some of the country's major Internet traffic hubs, were targets of extensive hacking by U.S. spies this year. He said the NSA was focusing on so-called "network backbones" in China, through which enormous amounts of Internet data passes.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry said it was aware of the reports of Snowden's departure from Hong Kong to Moscow but did not know the specifics. It said the Chinese central government "always respects" Hong Kong's "handling of affairs in accordance with law." The Foreign Ministry also noted that it is "gravely concerned about the recently disclosed cyberattacks by relevant U.S. government agencies against China."

China's state-run media have used Snowden's allegations to poke back at Washington after the U.S. had spent the past several months pressuring China on its international spying operations.

A commentary published Sunday by the official Xinhua News Agency said Snowden's disclosures of U.S. spying activities in China have "put Washington in a really awkward situation."

"Washington should come clean about its record first. It owes ... an explanation to China and other countries it has allegedly spied on," it said. "It has to share with the world the range, extent and intent of its clandestine hacking programs."

____

Chan reported from Hong Kong. Sylvia Hui in London, Paul Haven in Havana, Gonzalo Solano in Quito, Ecuador, and Anne Flaherty and Julie Pace in Washington contributed to this report.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/wanted-us-leaker-snowden-believed-moscow-161850018.html

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Powerful gene-editing tool appears to cause off-target mutations in human cells

June 23, 2013 ? In the past year a group of synthetic proteins called CRISPR-Cas RNA-guided nucleases (RGNs) have generated great excitement in the scientific community as gene-editing tools. Exploiting a method that some bacteria use to combat viruses and other pathogens, CRISPR-Cas RGNs can cut through DNA strands at specific sites, allowing the insertion of new genetic material. However, a team of Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) researchers has found a significant limitation to the use of CRISPR-Cas RGNs, production of unwanted DNA mutations at sites other than the desired target.

"We found that expression of CRISPR-Cas RGNs in human cells can have off-target effects that, surprisingly, can occur at sites with significant sequence differences from the targeted DNA site," says J. Keith Joung, MD, PhD, associate chief for Research in the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) Department of Pathology and co-senior author of the report receiving online publication in Nature Biotechnology. "RGNs continue to have tremendous advantages over other genome editing technologies, but these findings have now focused our work on improving their precision."

Consisting of a DNA-cutting enzyme called Cas 9, coupled with a short, 20-nucleotide segment of RNA that matches the target DNA segment, CRISPR-Cas RGNs mimic the primitive immune systems of certain bacteria. When these microbes are infected by viruses or other organisms, they copy a segment of the invader's genetic code and incorporate it into their DNA, passing it on to future bacterial generations. If the same pathogen is encountered in the future, the bacterial enzyme called Cas9, guided by an RNA sequence the matches the copied DNA segment, inactivates the pathogen by cutting its DNA at the target site.

About a year ago, scientists reported the first use of programmed CRISPR-Cas RGNs to target and cut specific DNA sites. Since then several research teams, including Joung's, have succesfully used CRISPR-Cas RGNs to make genomic changes in fruit flies, zebrafish, mice and in human cells -- including induced pluripotent stem cells which have many of the characteristics of embryonic stem cells. The technology's reliance on such a short RNA segment makes CRISPR-Cas RGNs much easier to use than other gene-editing tools called zinc finger nucleases (ZFNs) and transcription activator-like effector nucleases (TALENs), and RGNs can be programmed to introduce several genetic changes at the same time.

However, the possibility that CRISPR-Cas RGNs might cause additional, unwanted genetic changes has been largely unexplored, so Joung's team set out to investigate the occurrence of "off-target" mutations in human cells expressing CRISPR-Cas RGNs. Since the interaction between the guiding RNA segment and the target DNA relies on only 20 nucleotides, they hypothesized that the RNA might also recognize DNA segments that differed from the target by a few nucleotides.

Although previous studies had found that a single-nucleotide mismatch could prevent the action of some CRISPR-Cas RGNs, the MGH team's experiments in human cell lines found multiple instances in which mismatches of as many as five nucleotides did not prevent cleavage of an off-target DNA segment. They also found that the rates of mutation at off-target sites could be as high or even higher than at the targeted site, something that has not been observed with off-target mutations associated with ZFNs or TALENs.

"Our results don't mean that RGNs cannot be important research tools, but they do mean that researchers need to account for these potentially confounding effects in their experiments. They also suggest that the existing RGN platform may not be ready for therapeutic applications," says Joung, who is an associate professor of Pathology at Harvard Medical School. "We are now working on ways to reduce these off-target effects, along with methods to identify all potential off-target sites of any given RGN in human cells so that we can assess whether any second-generation RGN platforms that are developed will be actually more precise on a genome-wide scale. I am optimistic that we can further engineer this system to achieve greater specificity so that it might be used for therapy of human diseases."

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/most_popular/~3/k3Z12VMmz6k/130623145102.htm

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